If you are new to my ongoing reality series on cartoonist Scott Meyer, start with this link to catch up:
http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2007/08/basic-instruc-1.html
Readers of this blog overwhelmingly preferred reading Basic Instructions in its original 4-panel and wordy format compared to the simpler strip format, the sort that newspapers are more willing to buy. As an experiment, I asked Scott to keep all of the content of an existing 4-panel square formatted strip and simply stuff it into newspaper strip dimensions. The question was whether the lettering would become too small to read.
Click to enlarge.
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I think it works, but just barely. Newspaper readers are mostly older, and they aren’t keen on tiny print. Without the benefit of real data, I would guess at least twenty percent of newspaper readers would have a hard time reading it.
But that’s true of existing comics too. Doonesbury has small text and lots of words.
Do you think he should try to get syndicated in this hard-to-read format, or use fewer words, increase text size, and dilute the humor density?